June 3, 2017 at 4:39 am

@shavkat Sorry you are having your content stolen. That is NOT cool.

I have to wonder how something like that happens here with all the posts being moderated. Are the admin not checking before they publish posts? That physical activity post is really weirdly formatted too. I suspect it was already copied from somewhere else.

Not a good sign, especially since people are saying they have not been paid this month….

June 3, 2017 at 4:24 am

@analyst157 I can understand why you would prefer there not to be a DMCA takedown. I don’t know much about how Google ranks sites that have had a complaint. If the site removes the content, does it still count against them?

It’s too bad that so many here seem to be struggling. I hope things will improve.

August 20, 2016 at 1:03 am

@shavkat I’ve discovered that if I reduce the volume to zero on the video and change it from HD to the lowest possible quality, these changes will be saved for new instances of the video during a session. But if I move away from LB for a while and I later come back to it, the video resets to 100% volume and HD.

So there is a bit of relief, but it’s not perfect. And I have to keep doing it each time I try to interact or post here, which significantly interferes with my experience on the site.

Between that, and now discovering that we no longer have the right to delete our posts if we accept payment from LiteracyBase (even say, if the site were to stop their payment program as BlogJob did) I am really not sure how I feel about posting here on LB. I will have to give it due consideration, as the few pennies I make per post are not worth giving up all right to remove my content should there be an issue in the future.

But I do love the atmosphere created by we users here, and I am saddened that the admin seem to be moving in directions that disregard the user experience and make it harder for us to enjoy that camaraderie here. I am saddened to see this happening….

August 20, 2016 at 12:57 am

@bestwriter I’ve been less than diligent in following changes to the terms here at LiteracyBase, and perhaps I missed an announcement from the admin here. So I’m wondering if you can fill me in on something that I may simply have missed hearing about.

Was there any announcement about changes to the T&C here?

I only ask because, back in the spring when I took my last screencap of the T&C, we still owned the copyrights to the work we publish on LB. And it seems now that, somewhere along the lines a change has been made that strips us of the right to delete our content. There has been new content pasted into the T&C that says, although we are fully responsible for any legal ramifications of our content here on the site, LB now owns our posts and cannot be forced to delete them once they have paid us.

I am sure that I just missed an announcement that was made plainly for all of us to see, and that there has been every effort made to preserve the transparency here on LB and to clarify the site rules so none of us would feel cheated. So there must have been something said in recent weeks when that new clause was added to the T&C?

I thought if anyone would know where this had been said, sure it would be you Grace.

August 20, 2016 at 12:49 am

@ptrikha15 I think perhaps you are right!

When I first started at Tsu, I was making about 5 cents a day there for a few interactions with some friends and a chance to share some of my blogging links. Maybe I spent an hour or so, chatting with friends and looking at some truly stunning photography and artwork that I couldn’t see anywhere else.

There was no effort involved. It was relaxing, so I didn’t mind that the pennies were only trickling in at a time when I could still earn several dollars for a 100-word post at the B site in only a matter of minutes.

But I guess about a month after I joined, many of us on the site started to notice a lot of abuse on the site. Lots of copyright infringement, vulgar images and posts promoting the drug life. Some users seemed to be using sockpuppets (additional accounts used to game the system) and these users were violating the TOS with impunity.

Rather than to address our genuine concerns over this kind of abuse, the admin at Tsu ignored us and said we couldn’t complain about copyright infringement unless we owned the copyrights to the works in question. And of course, they knew we didn’t. They allowed those works to stay on the site, presumably because all that violating content was earning them ad revenues.

It wasn’t until some of the actual copyright owners started to complain that Tsu did something about all that infringing content. They added the ability for people to report abuse, directly from the content itself. But of course, you had to be a registered member of the site to even SEE the content. And what bona fide artist was going to join a site after learning its admin were allowing users to violate his copyright?

Absurd, right? But that was the catch 22!

Around that same time, the amount of money we earned for our interactions suddenly plummeted without warning. From one day to the next, the same activity went from paying 5 cents to maybe not paying a penny at all. It was like the admin were punishing those of us who wanted a site where we could enjoy social interaction without all the pornographic content, glorification of drugs, and copyright violations.

That was more or less when I left the site.

It would have taken me over a year to earn the $100 at the original pace. But when they dropped the rates, it just stopped being worth it. And frankly, I didn’t want to contribute to lining the pockets of a site owner who did business like that.

August 19, 2016 at 8:50 am

@shavkat The problem is that the video tells us all things we already know. It doesn’t get them new users, and it doesn’t help the existing users. It’s a really great idea but they’re misusing it.

August 18, 2016 at 5:57 am

I used to write about 4-6 posts a day, and sometimes more. That was in the “good (bad?) old days” before Panda. Now I tend to write longer posts and fewer of them. The effort is reduced and I get better results than if I push myself to post many times a day.

I am still kind of in flux. I was writing about 2-4 posts a week at one point. But some days, I’ve written 2 or more in the same day. It really depends on my inspiration and energy level, and how much time I can spare.

August 18, 2016 at 5:46 am

@bestwriter It’s really frustrating when the site admin not only refuse to take action but won’t even respond to requests for help or information. That’s got to be one of my biggest complaints here at LB, right since we first started. And it’s certainly what finally put me off BlogJob when their payment program was suspended. I don’t mind waiting a bit to be paid if I know the whys and wherefores of the situation. I don’t even mind a little uncertainty when there’s a good reason for it.

I don’t mind waiting a bit to be paid if I know the whys and wherefores of the situation. I don’t even mind a little uncertainty when there’s a good reason for it. But when admin remain mute while users plead for help or info or change, it seems rather cold and distant of them.

As I’ve often said, I enjoy the warmth and camaraderie of our many different writing sites. I appreciate real transparency (not just people claiming to be transparent.) Things like the site owner having an actual name (instead of “support” or “admin”) and staff responding in forums, and a FB or Twitter account that’s actually monitored and maintained, these all go a very long way to making a site more welcoming.

The best sites for me have always been the ones where the site owners are out in the open, where they respond both on the site and also on social media, and where any issue is promptly addressed. I save most of my time for such sites, as it just feels great to be part of the community there 🙂

August 18, 2016 at 5:35 am

@shavkat I think that video would be better on a sort of FAQ page, where users can go to learn more about how the site works. It’s a nice idea, but it really hurts the users to waste bandwidth on every page. And I have to wonder how LB can afford to waste the bandwidth too? They must have to pay more hosting fees for all the times that video gets played while people ignore it. It’s a waste for everyone and if you think of it, all that extra bandwidth is electricity. And that’s a strain on the environment.

I know I’m eager to spend more time here on LB. But I really don’t want to do it while every page is taking up so much bandwidth. I can’t justify that.

August 18, 2016 at 5:31 am

@bestwriter There are still some low-quality posts on the site that sort of sneaked in when Mike was the sole editor and was swamped with posts to approve. He had to disable all moderation for a time, but it was restored once things settled down. We are finding that, while some are put off by the moderation, most are happy for the extra support when they are new to the site or struggling with some aspect of their writing.

I’m not so surprised that many are choosing to continue despite the wait for the first cash-out. Our stats are good and we are working on strengthening the revenue streams through various strategies. Mike is sincere in his desire to create a platform that will be sustainable in the long term, and not a flash in the pan like some of our previous writing sites have been.

Part of the raison d’etre of the site has become to provide an opportunity to learn and not just to earn. Several of our users have been working really hard towards that end and showing greater skill and confidence as we work together. Other users are very supportive and are working on their own ideas for giving extra help to those who need it. It’s very rewarding to see the community come together to strive towards our common goals 🙂

It takes time to grow. We are trying to tweak just a little here and there so the users won’t have to adapt overly much each time there’s an update. And as I said, we are weeding out the posts that need it. Mostly, we give the users feedback and they have the chance to fix the post instead of losing their coins to a post deletion. It’s rare that we make the choice to outright delete any content on the site (though users can both edit and delete at will, which is something I’d love to be able to do here on LB!) The few times we do delete something, it’s usually from a spammer’s account.

August 18, 2016 at 4:51 am

The one big improvement we need here is to get the video to stop auto-playing! Do you know the pages here on LB are taking up over 8 MB? That’s too much, especially for anyone who has to pay for bandwidth.

August 18, 2016 at 4:49 am

@bestwriter I noticed the same problem on BlogJob, Grace. I started by hiding my posts because when I deleted a post, I was penalized 50 points for each one. I thought this was rather unjust, since Sheridan had stopped payment (meaning the points earned for those posts were still owing to me) and said he would completely understand if we wanted to leave.

Well, it was impossible to cash out with transferred points (he just refunded them to the donor) and I couldn’t delete the whole blogs themselves because the system is set up to use a verification email that it never sends out. So I hid the posts and Google said it couldn’t see the content, which made me hope I could deindex the posts one at a time. No such luck! Google just refuses without any explanation, so the posts stay indexed. There is a workaround, but I haven’t had time to implement it.

That is what had me thinking to delete the account outright….

BlogBourne is great! Thanks for asking. We are seeing some great content and working closely with some of our writers who show a great deal of potential. The interactions both on and off the site are very rewarding, too!

August 18, 2016 at 4:34 am

I prefer to work on sites where I can cash out every 30 days or so. If the effort takes a little longer, especially the first time, that’s OK. But if other users are consistently saying it takes them 3-6 months or more to reach the minimum cash-out point, that’s too long.

With Tsu, most people couldn’t have made cash-out in a year! Plus the amount we earned decreased significantly there, after I’d been very active for about month. They didn’t admit it or explain it, but it definitely decreased a lot.

August 18, 2016 at 4:26 am

@bestwriter I’ve had a very busy summer, that’s for sure! Lots going on offline, and I hope maybe I’ll have time to post about some of it soon. My “big girls” are heading home in a few days. That will help ease the burden here for a short while, but already we must prepare for the back to school season. It’s been a challenging summer, but not long enough in some ways!

I considered deleted my BJ account, and almost did. But then I realized I had a lot of groups there that I should attend to if I were going to sever my ties completely. So I put it on the back burner, so to speak. Now I suppose that I’m glad I didn’t quit completely.

If they start paying again, I’ll at least interact and try to earn a few points that way. I think I will completely delete my three blogs there, though. And if I resume blogging, I’ll try something a little different. I’m thinking that I don’t want to do any niche writing except on my own blogs, from now on. There have been too many disappointments over the last couple of years. And I’m getting tired of having to migrate content when things don’t work out on one of the blogging sites.

August 18, 2016 at 4:07 am

I agree with you @bestwriter, until the points start accumulating again it’s still the same situation. But it does bring us hope to hear that perhaps the site is in transition towards restoring the reward system. That would be a boon to many writers.

I don’t think I received an email but as you know yourself, I’m not very good at checking it! I will try to login over at BlogJob later to see what is going on and find out if there’s any good news. I felt really bad when the site cut the earnings. Many of us really enjoyed the interaction over there, as well as the unique set-up with the blogs.

Of course, had there not been issues over there, I wonder if any of us would have found LiteracyBase?